Traditionally, March 8, Women's Day, celebrates women around the world and raises issues of inequality, violence against women and girls, and discrimination.

The National Action Committee on the Status of Women's website reports a familiar theme for Womens Day. The government of Canada's theme for 2010 is: "Strong Women. Strong Canada. Strong World." This is explained as "reflecting the government's belief that increasing women's participation and access to leadership roles and opportunities that help women and girls reach their full potential and help build a prosperous Canada."

Nothing wrong with that, although a little short on how we reach those leadership roles.

But it kept nagging at me that this was already done. The theme for 2009 was: Strong Leadership. Strong Women. Strong World: Equality. This was "reflecting the government's firm belief that increasing women's participation and access to leadership roles and opportunities that help women and girls thrive, reach their full potential and fulfill their dreams, and help build a more prosperous Canada." Sound familiar?

In 2008 the theme was: Strong Women, Strong World. In 2007 the theme was: Ending Violence against Women: Action for Real Results. And in 2006 the theme was: Beyond Laws: the Right to Be Me.

What does this tell us? It could be that the Conservative government has no imagination, or it could be a reflection on how little importance this government places on women's lives in this country. Do you remember when the government cut funding to NAC and to women's groups? This once powerful group seems to be a shell of its former self. How sad. It's hard to believe that in 1984 there was actually a leader's debate on women's issues.

According to a study by a Queen's University Professor Kathleen Lahey, women are falling behind not moving forward. By her calculations, women have only received about 7% to 22% of federal infrastructure spending. And though women are half the population, they're only seeing roughly a third of the enhancements to the employment insurance program.

Lahey also notes that of the $9.4 billion spent to date on stimulus, only $572,475 has gone to upgrading women's shelters, while nearly triple that amount has been committed to upgrading three animal shelters in Canada. Women only saw 40% of the benefits of personal tax cuts brought in by this government.

The government disputes this with statistics like, women's average incomes have increased almost 17% since 2002, and they are 47.2% of the workforce in 2009. But what that doesn't say is the jobs women are getting are lower paying, fewer benefits and extremely difficult to maintain without affordable child care.

Harper's decision to focus on maternal health in Third World countries, while perhaps admirable, ignores that fact that in this country the fetal and infant mortality rate in Inuit inhabited areas of Canada are 2.7 times higher than elsewhere in this country, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

And how will Harper tackle this issue? Will it include the right to have safe abortions as part of the strategy to tackle

On Manitoulin Island, there will be a Women's Day dinner with a guest speaker put on by the local shelter Manitoulin Family Resources and Seeds of Joy. Call 377-5160 for tickets.

It's time we put our issues back on the table; let's make the next election about the realities facing women and girls in this country.